GMail

You don't hear much about web apps these days, but there are some that look and function so well you might forget you're using Safari. Google has been constantly improving its Gmail web interface and they've recently revamped the mobile site again. Similar to the native Apple Mail app, the mobile version of Gmail's website is designed with the iPhone touch screen in mind.

You can swipe to archive a message, and now Google has improved the scroll speed to simulate the same quick flick of the finger to jump down in the mailbox. The toolbar has been anchored to the top of the screen, a welcome reversal of a recent change that had the toolbar floating over emails.

Now you can receive iPhone push notifications instantly every time a new email comes to your Gmail inbox. The app, called Gpush, has been released by Tiverias Apps and approved by Apple.

Users can select between several options to determine how they are alerted of new mail. The iPhone will vibrate, ring, display the email message sender and subject on the lock screen (like incoming SMS), or just show a badge of how many new messages have come in on the GPush icon.

Google has recently added IMAP as an available protocol for their GMail. This is a long awaited feature for GMail users (not just GMail iPhone users) as it allows for true synchronization between GMail and offline mail readers.

UPDATE: Now iPhone users can simply choose "GMail" from the list of built-in accounts when adding a new email account. Navigate to Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars -> Add Account -> Gmail and enter your account Address and Password. Touch "Save" and it will connect automatically.

Old information follows:

Google has offered two sources of easy to follow instructions, a text version and a video, for setting up GMail reading via IMAP on the iPhone. Both are copied below: